SOURCE: Gorecki, John E. “An Echo of Herrick in Housman's A Shropshire Lad LXII.” American Notes and Queries 23, nos. 9-10 (May-June 1985): 142-43.

In the following essay, Gorecki points out that in the poem “Terence” in A Shropshire Lad, Housman makes reference to the poetry of Robert Herrick.

A. E. Housman's open reference to Milton in A Shropshire Lad LXII, “Terence, this is stupid stuff,” contains an unnoticed echo of “His farewell to Sack” by Robert Herrick. In reply to one critical of his verse, Housman's Terence says that if he wants to feel happy he should take up drinking and that opportunities for it are close at hand:

Oh many a peer of England brews Livelier liquor than the Muse, And malt does more than Milton can To justify God's way to man. 

(19-22)¹

Herrick's persona, praising the virtues of sack, says in apostrophe to it:

'Tis thou...